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The Washington Post’s Tom Boswell called the Nats’ final playoff game of 2017 an exhilarating, exhausting, donnybrook that “staggers even the baseball imagination.” The Nationals 9-8 deciding game 5 loss to the Chicago Cubs was a marathon filled with improbable and confusing twists and turns that were hard to process for many in attendance.

The race that seemed to go on forever began all the way on the third base side of the field. Abe Lincoln took an early lead, but struggled when the presidents encountered the first challenge on this obstacle course, a “dizzy bat spinning” contest.

Thomas Jefferson emerged with the lead as they approached the next obstacle, but the dinosaur in left field did little to get in the way.

Next, a shuttle run set up in right field proved a challenge for Tom and Teddy, but our first commander in chief George Washington sailed through it to take his first lead heading to the final obstacle.

If the crowd on hand wasn’t confused yet, the folding table in front of the finish line likely did the job; but George leaped over it to take the tape as the other presidents gave up and left the field for the final time in 2017.

George won all three races this postseason, with Teddy Roosevelt bringing up the rear each time. Roosevelt finished the season 0-for-84, and like the Nationals and their fans, will have to wait until 2018 for a chance at redemption.

UPDATE: On Thursday, Pepco parent Exelon has funded an additional hour of operating time for the Metro. Times have been updated below.

The Washington Nationals return to DC Thursday for a deciding NLDS playoff game 5 vs. the Chicago Cubs. However, with an announced start time of 8:08pm, just over 4 hours before the last northbound train departs from the Navy Yard/Ballpark station, fans who rely on Metro face the possibility of choosing between sticking around for a late or extra-innings clincher and getting home at all.

As soon as the game time was announced, fans began using the Twitter hashtag #NatsRide to connect with fans who planned to drive and are willing to share a ride home in exchange for sharing the cost of parking and gas.

The system was created in 2016 by our friends at the TalkNats blog and was a huge success when the Nationals faced a similar late weeknight game. Fans with cars used it to share the cost of driving. Fans reliant on Metro used it to find transportation home.

To take advantage, simply use the #NatsRide hashtag in a tweet and be sure to include the name of the neighborhood you’re trying to get to after the game.

The last Green line train to Greenbelt will depart the Navy Yard station at 12:22pm. The last Green line train to Branch Ave will depart the Navy Yard station at 12:48pm.

After Monday’s come-from-behind victory by the Chicago Cubs over the Washington Nationals in the National League Division Series playoffs, fans gathered outside Nationals Park in Washington at noon Tuesday to try to do their part to exorcise the team’s playoff demons.

“We’ve been doing this since 2005 when our backs are to the wall,” Kaufman declared to more than a dozen fans and Nationals employees gathered in front of the stadium. saying that the Nats “have always won at least one game after we do a chicken sacrifice.”

Kaufman brought an autographed baseball from the 1924 Washington Senators (the last DC team to have won a World Series), a Jobu doll “to help the bats get rid of their fear and wake up,” and a Tanner Roark bobblehead, as Roark is scheduled to pitch game four.

Kaufman then thanked the crowd. and swung the rubber chicken above his head. “Take all the bad juju from the Nats,” Kaufman said. “Putting it in the Chicken.”

Kaufman then did the deed, those assembled wished the team good luck, and dispersed for lunch.

For the first time in more than two years, there will be a chicken sacrifice at Nationals Park.

Longtime readers are familiar with the ritual performed by Hugh Kaufman, aka the Washington Nationals’ “Rubber Chicken Man,” whenever the team has run into a string of bad “juju.”

“There hasn’t been a chicken sacrifice in the two years that Dusty has managed the Nats.” Kaufman said Tuesday after the Chicago Cubs took a come-from-behind playoff victory from the Nationals, “but our backs are to the wall and there has been a tsunami of bad juju raining down on us.”

So Kaufman plans to do the deed at noon outside the Nationals Park centerfield gates, and is inviting fans to join him.

Kaufman brought a Jobu doll and a Gio Gonzalez bobblehead to Saturday’s Game 2 victory.

The last sacrifice came mid-season 2015, after a string of injuries and losses had dropped the Nationals out of first place. The 2016 season was the first the team had gone all year without a chicken sacrifice, and until today, it appeared they might go sacrifice-free two years in a row.

Kaufman, who fans may recognize from his seats right above the Nationals dugout, has conducted sacrifices that preceded winning streaks many times since 2005. His sacrifices were called on by former manager Davey Johnson, and by pitcher Gio Gonzalez, who has been known to wear a “Chicken Mode” t-shirt in honor of Kaufman.

“Jobu might be there also,” Kaufman added, “to help wake up our bats again as he did on Saturday night.”

The Washington Nationals have added an extensive menu of fall specialty items to be available exclusively during the 2017 postseason beginning this Friday at Nationals Park. Here’s a rundown of what to expect, and where you can find it:

UPDATED: The Washington Nationals completed installation of an exclusive new section of seats at Nationals Park just in time to reveal them at Tuesday’s annual media day.

With just eight seats, the new “Dugout Club” will be the smallest section of the park, available exclusively to members of the new MGM National Harbor casino’s MLife Rewards program.

In a press release Wednesday, the MGM called the “plush leather recliner seats” the “best eight seats in baseball,” but the location — just below ground level beyond the home dugout — could be of concern both to the fans behind them and the high rollers who sit there.

A concrete wall along the ramp to the new section has some season plan holders concerned

Black leather seats in the new Nationals Park Dugout Club

Fans who’ve held coveted season tickets along the railing since the park opened in 2008 were notified last week that the new section was being installed in front of them. The letter assured these season plan holders that their views would not be obstructed, promising that the team had “taken great care to ensure that the new club will not impact the sightlines from existing seats.”

But fair balls notwithstanding, photos suggest that it’s the wall built to a ramp leading into the section that could affect views into the dugout, the on-deck circle, and foul territory; and those fans’ days of reaching out to collect foul grounders as they skitter up the line are largely over. “We’ve had these seats since the park opened,” said one season plan holder in Section 134A who asked not to be named. “We love them because we feel like we’re on the field, and we get a lot of foul grounders. I hope this new section doesn’t take away from that. Seems like we’re now going to be looking over a concrete wall.”

As for the big spenders who’ll get access to those seats, they may be in for an unpleasant surprise on hot summer days. “It’s a great place to sit,” the season plan holder said, “but you’re really exposed and it can be brutal on a Sunday afternoon. We sometimes trade in our tickets on those days. Black leather could be particularly unpleasant. I hope those high rollers know what they’re in for.”

The new Dugout Club was installed where the Nationals Park grounds crew used to store the tarp, but with a wall and protective net in front of the seats, it effectively shrinks the ball park’s foul territory on the first base side.

Tickets for the MGM National Harbor Dugout Club include a “personal attendant that will cater to Dugout guests’ every need,” and will be exclusively available to members of MGM Resorts International’s M life Rewards who are at the Platinum level or higher, with 200,000 or more credits earned by playing slots and table games or by spending money at their resorts.

The Washington Nationals introduced a program on Thursday offering all season plan holders the opportunity to purchase vouchers for each of the team’s twelve promotional/giveaway items for the 2017 season.

For $100 each (plus $9 in fees), season plan holders may purchase up to two booklets containing vouchers which may be redeemed for each of the promotional items, guaranteeing access whether the team runs out at the gate or not:

The vouchers may only be purchased by logging into a season planholder account, and may be redeemed any time after the release date at the team’s new Red Carpet Rewards Center at Nationals Park, located in the Center Field Plaza adjacent to the Right Field Gate.